Please scroll down the page to view archives of the live television appearances.

Michigan BrowniesMarch 28, 2014
This dessert is made with fudge brownies covered in Mackinac Island Fudge Sauce and Traverse City Tart Cherry Topping. This is one of my favorite plates to make and I love the combination of cherry and chocolate fudge. Pair this with Peninsula Cellar’s Hot Rod Cherry Wine and forget about Michigan’s long winter!

Birthday Cake MartiniJanuary 24, 2014
Know what I love about birthdays? Birthday cake! Know what I love more than birthday cake? Birthday Cake Martinis! This drink recipe is easier to make than a cake, for sure.

Fruit-Topped Cheesecake
From WZZM TV13’s morning talk show Take 5 on Thursday, January 30, 2014. I demonstrate how to make a cheescake, give tips on how to bake one without cracks and then show you how to make a yummy strawberry topping for the cheesecake.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Pecan Pie which appeared on Friday, November 22, 2013 on WZZM TV13’s noon show segment “What’s Cooking?” can be viewed below. The recipe is super rich and really decadent.

Tuxedo Strawberries
From WZZM TV13’s morning talk show “Take 5” on Tuesday, December 3, 2013. I love to work with chocolate and the presentation of these treats is just adorable!

Beer ‘n Bacon Roasted Chicken
A recipe featured on WZZM’s morning talk show “Take 5,” a simple but tasty recipe. The beer can be substituted with Vernors or 7-Up or Coke in a can. The bacon, however, should NOT be messed with. Friends don’t let friends eat turkey bacon!

Here are videos of past recipes shown on “What’s Cooking?”

Pumpkin Pancakes September 27, 2013

Who doesn’t love a good pancake? This recipe combines a fluffy pancake with the goodness of pumpkin and traditional pumpkin pie spices. The maple-infused cream cheese spread on top of these tasty breakfast treats makes for a divine pancake platter!

Pigskin Poppers August 23, 2013
I love football and I love to snack on some tasty food at halftime. Bacon, jalapeno peppers and cheese come together to make these game day treats, Pigskin Poppers, something to cheer about. Yes, I am a Detroit Lions fan. I am also a fan of the hair (and beast-like defensive power) of Green Bay’s Clay Matthews. I am seriously torn when my Detroit “boys in blue” play against my favorite NFL player dressed in the green and gold. In this segment, check out the Clay Matthews’ photo bomb by my finished plate of food and see how to make a simple snack for yourself and guests when cheering on your favorite football team.

Campfire Recipes July 12, 2013
I love campfire cooking. I enjoy making a meal in a packet of foil and, in the end, having a full belly with no dishes to wash or put away later. My boys helped me put together the food in this episode, showing off their awesome camping survival skills. Honestly, if I have the ingredients around to make the hobo packets, my boys will make their own dinner in foil packets on our grill at home. This makes me happy because some days, after tirelessly preparing and cooking food for others all day while at work, this chef wants to kick off the kitchen clogs and not think about cooking at home.

Kielbasa, Beer & Cheese Soup May 17, 2013
The recipe of mine was chosen to be featured in celebration of Grand Rapids claim to fame as Beer City USA, 2013. It is actually the second year in a row that the Brew City has earned this award. I am a fan of craft beers that are brewed and bottled all over Michigan and I enjoy both drinking and cooking with the various, flavorful beverages. In this segment, I make a hearty soup with Founder’s Brewing Company’s amber ale called “Dirty Bastard.” Although I am not allowed to swear (ever) on live television, I missed my opportunity to get away with doing so, if only I had said the name of the beer on the show. I guess I will have to look for other naughty-named ingredients to cook with in future segments if I really want to cuss and get away with it on live TV.

Caramel Pecan Turtles
This recipe was shared with me by a dear chef friend, Blair Goodmen. Blair and I worked together for a very brief time on the Silver Spork Food Truck in Grand Rapids and he has worked at some of the finer dining establishments in Grand Rapids. Blair taught me how to make the best caramel EVER and he gave me his secrets to making turtle candies with this homemade caramel. I have adopted Blair’s recipe and love it like one of my own. When I make this recipe, I only use real butter and will coat the candies in milk or dark Dove chocolate.

Melted Snowman Cookies
I saw a cookie recipe on Pinterest that produced fancy-looking melting snowmen with thin frosting arms and perfect carrot noses. Upon reading the directions and ingredients of the original pin, I realized that the recipe called for fondant, royal icing and some mad decorating skills. I really wanted to adapt the recipe I saw to fit into my traditional holiday baking and cookie decorating time with my boys. With the help of my youngest son, decorating this cookie with alternative ingredients was a snap. The marshmallows in our cupboard came in handy and my boy was glad to have an excuse to buy the Fruit by the Foot candy when we went shopping for ingredients. In this segment, my son and I are joined by Ruth, a WZZM noon news viewer and fan.

Caramel Apple Art”Piez”
I was the culinary intern with both The Silver Spork Food Truck and The Grand Rapids Cooking School during the summer of 2012. In order to fulfill the requirements of my culinary arts degree, I completed 400 hours of food preparation and service aboard the truck or assisted at the kitchen of the cooking school. After my internship was over, I was glad to have an opportunity to continue working with the food truck and the cooking school. In the fall of 2012, the truck was parked in front of the Grand Rapids Art Museum during all of ArtPrize. I was asked to create a special dessert to serve from the truck during the festival. I did just that, using fresh, locally grown apples, a homemade caramel sauce, freshly whipped cream and the flaky, butter crust recipe I learned to make in culinary school. I know I made over 80 pies by the time the art event was over (although in this segment, I thought it was closer to 100 pies). That means we sold over 640 slices of pie from the truck. Then, as if I was not yet tired of making pies, I taught a class at the Grand Rapids Cooking School shortly after ArtPrize was over, and made several more pies while disclosing my recipe secrets. To make all of these pies during this time, I used up an entire 40 pound box of unsalted butter from Country Dairy in New Era and then peeled, cored and sliced two bushels of my friend Susie Tubbs’ golden delicious and honey crisp apples from her farm in Hart, Michigan. Caramel Apple Art”Piez” were truly a West Michigan effort.

Mini Edible Snowmen
This recipe was created one December, when there was absolutely no snow on the ground in Michigan and at a time when we should have been waist-deep in the white stuff. While I do not generally complain about lack of snow, my boys were not too happy about missing their favorite winter activities such as sledding, throwing snowballs and making snowmen. While I could not come up with any alternatives to sledding and throwing snowballs at each other, I did help my boys make snowmen without snow. The bonus is that these snowmen are also pretty tasty.

Bloody Brains
This fruit carving is what I will make when there is a zombie apocalypse. I will just carve one of these convincing-looking watermelon “brains” and will leave it on a platter for the zombies to eat while I safely run away…

Pico de Gallo/Salsa Fresca
I know I look like a “gringa” but I speak Spanish and love Mexican food. Pico de gallo is one of my favorite Mexican foods and how convenient that my dad’s garden will provide all of the ingredients needed to make this fresh salsa. In this segment, I talk about using garden tomatoes, sweet onions, hot and mild peppers, juice squeezed from a lime and salt… while a large pile of fresh cilantro sat on my cutting board and I did not even mention the important ingredient, nor did I add it while on air. While there are no “do overs” in live television, this is one segment where I wish I could have had an opportunity to make the recipe over again just so I did not leave out an important and obvious component of the recipe!

Touchdown Taco Pizza
I am a “football mom” to two athletic football-playing boys. Most Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings in the fall, rain or shine or even snow, I can be found in the stands yelling and cheering for my boys. Then, on Monday nights, I can be found in front of the TV, on the couch with my boys, cheering for our favorite players in the NFL. This recipe is great for the dish to pass at the end of the football season banquets for my boys as well as for any Superbowl party. A taco pizza that looks like a football field is a hit, no matter what football-affiliated eating event it is brought to and shared.

Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms
This recipe produces amazing and tasty results and it only takes a few minutes to prepare. I serve the stuffed portabella mushrooms to dinner and party guests at my house as an appetizer. I also serve this for breakfast to my family some mornings with a side of scrambled eggs. I have used a variety of bulk sausage in this recipe, including hot Italian, sweet Italian and breakfast sausage and have had great results with whatever sausage used. Any dry white wine will work and use whatever you may have around, including chardonnay, pinot grigio, pinot gris or sauvignon blanc. I do not recommend using riesling or moscato, however, as those wines tend to be too sweet for this recipe.

Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake

Kitty Litter Cake

April Fool’s Day Breakfast

Beer Battered Asparagus

Caramel Bailey’s Apple Torte

Puffy Pretzels and Caramel Apple Martini

Try It Before You Buy It – Big Top Cupcake

Diary of a TV Chef
I have been cooking on television for over 17 years and I sincerely enjoy sharing recipes that home cooks can attempt with success. With each scheduled cooking episode, I find it challenging and fun to find or create recipes that are appropriate for a holiday or event. I use various sources for my recipe ideas, whether it be my own imagination or something great I saw and wanted to try on Pinterest, Facebook, other food blogs or even in old school cookbooks. I usually experiment with the food ideas I have in the days prior to the segment. In that play time, I figure out ways to make the recipe easier or better, and then decide how I will explain and demonstrate the resulting recipe in less than three minutes on live TV, when in reality the recipe could have taken me hours to prepare…
This video is an actual diary of what it takes to prepare for and carry out a successful live-televised recipe segment. The four minutes or less of recipe demo on air does not ever show all the details that went into the recipe, such as how slowly the bread rises, how long it takes to peel a pile of carrots or how many dishes are stacked in my sink at home as a result of getting food ready for the show. Enjoy the sneak peak at all of the efforts that go into a recipe well before the cameras go live and the show is broadcast.